Galatians

Study 5: Gal. 1:11-24

The true
Gospel (Part a)

In our
previous study we
considered the
fleshly religion: that which is in opposition to the gospel.
We
now
turn our
attention to the nature of the true gospel, as demonstrated by
Paul’s
experience. We shall consider some more
of the flesh religion, in particular with regards to evangelism; and
then what
the true gospel is: it is from God, it separates from the old, brings
us into
new birth and sees the formation of Christ in us.

1.
Not
after man but by revelation of Jesus v11-12

But
I
certify you, brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after [according
to] man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught but
by the
revelation of Jesus Christ.

Gal.1:11

The
gospel is
a revealed truth
from God. It
is not an invention of men’s minds; it is not a discovery
that man has
made in
his quest for knowledge nor is it a product of men’s wisdom,
for by the
wisdom
of this world God can never be known.

For
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

I
Cor. 1:21

It is
important to grasp this
truth because
many who are religious, many who are ‘theologians’
think that by their
rationalising
truth can be gained. We are emphatically told that this is not the
case. No
effort of man, in whatever sphere of learning or activity brought the
gospel to
us, in fact one could say that man’s ever increasing
knowledge has
hindered the receiving of the revelation from God.

ever
learning, and never able
to come to the
knowledge of the
truth.

II Tim. 3:7

Man’s
ideas of salvation
is
wide of the
mark, there is nothing in any of us that can give salvation to
any. Not
even the apostle Paul who was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews could claim that. And that leads us to what might be called
one of
the curses of evangelical Christianity: decisional
salvation. That is, preachers telling their congregations how
to be
saved by following
a particular formula once they made a decision to follow Christ.
For example a preacher may preach the
gospel, which may be technically perfect, but then tells people that to
become
a Christian one has to follow the ‘abc’ of
salvation; says the sinner’s
prayer,
signs a decision card and that’s them in the kingdom! I am
not mocking,
for
many do this, sincerely believing they are doing right, and no doubt
God uses
this at times to bring people into real salvation;
but the point is that it is a
carnal, man- made approach.

I
remember
once talking to
someone who
claimed to be saved, when asked his testimony he said he was in
someone’s house
and was asked whether he was a Christian. Replying in the negative this
man was
given a card and told to read it; after which he was told it was the
sinner’s
prayer and as he had said it he was now a Christian! Yet this
man’s life
was in a
mess and clearly not saved at all, yet he believed it and as far as I
know
continues in this deception.

An isolated incident? No, the story is
repeated throughout evangelical circles, people are being deceived into
thinking they are saved when in fact they are not. The further tragedy
is that
if people are ‘won’ this way, that is by
formula, then they
have to be kept by
formula, that’s the spirit they are of.
‘Saved’ by rules, then trying
to
live the
life by rules no wonder there are problems in the lives of so many
professing
believers. Does this explain why there is so much carnality and death
in such
places? If it doesn’t give the complete answer then it does
go some of
the way
to explain it.

Instead
the
gospel is God
revealed. It was
He who took the initiative; God Himself chose to save us and then let
us know.
There isn’t any guess work here; God has made it plainly
known, if only
we
would listen and take note. God revealed it to us and had He chosen not
to we
would have never had known, and all hope would have been lost.

From the very
outset when Adam sinned and
plunged the race into a fallen state God revealed what He would do:

And I
will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and
between
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his
heel.

Gen.3:15

Adam didn’t
work that one out, he couldn’t,
he had to be told; and from that point on God by degree revealed the
plan of
salvation, which was in His heart from before creation, through
the prophets until Christ came and
fulfilledHis
Father’s purposes here on
Earth; it is a revelation from God and we had no
part in it.

In our
preaching the practical
outworking
is clear.We preach
and God does the
work. He convicts and brings people to repentance. We read in Acts 2 that
when
Peter preached he didn’t give an appeal to the crowds, rather
it was those under
conviction who appealed
to
Peter as to what to do!!

Now when
they heard this,
they were
pricked in their
heart, and
said unto Peter
and to
the rest of the apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we
do? Then Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Acts
2:37-38

Our preaching
should not be of
the flesh,
not of carnal methods and clever salesman like methods; it needs to be
in the
Spirit bringing God’s word to the people and then God will
bring
conviction and
repentance.

2.Separatedand called by grace v.15

But
when it pleased God, who separated me from
my mother’s womb, and called me
by his grace,

Gal.1:15

Continuing the thought we see that Paul
makes it clear that it was God who separated him from his
mother’s womb
and
called him. Consider, for this is true of all human beings. When we
were
conceived we had no part in it, when we were born we had no part in it.
We made
no contribution to our conception or birth. It was all done apart from
us. God
it was who created the processes of natural generation, and it follows
God’s
determined plan in that respect. None of us had a part in our own
birth!

Spiritually
we have the same
picture! No child of God did anything to
obtain new birth, the life was conceived and it came to birth without
any input from us. Later in this epistle Paul talks about us having a
heavenly mother! Gal.4:26.
If we are born again then we too have the
same spiritual mother- heavenly
Jerusalem- but we did nothing to be
born again. It is at God’s pleasure, not men’s,
that we are born again
-not of the flesh, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of men but
of the will of God. Jn.1:12-13.

God
called us
by His grace; what
a word! Grace! It has the same root meaning as gift. God giving us what
we don’t deserve, life – eternal life. Who can
claim that they deserve
salvation? No one, we only deserve eternal damnation, yet God
in
mercy
reached out, sent Jesus to be made sin for us and take our punishment
so that we could be the recipients of His salvation. It is He who
reaches out to us. We can never reach out to Him by our own
efforts.

It is all of grace, how then can anyone reduce the gospel to a formula
of works?

But
God, who is
rich in mercy,
for his great
love wherewith he loved us,even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;) And hath
raised us up
together,
and made us
sit together in
heavenly places
in Christ
Jesus:That in the
ages to come he might shew the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.For
by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it
is the gift of God: Not of
works, lest any man
should
boast.